Reference AB

Reference AB is an audio device for Ableton Live built in Max4Live by John Darque.

It enables you to compare your mix to reference tracks with a simple click of the A|B button. Just put it on your master buss after all other processing plugins.
You can load one or more tracks and either loop the entire track or a selection. Just Drag and Drop them into the view.
It lets you easily compare your song to other mixes or other mixdowns of your own song.

The Filter tab lets you compare elements of your tracks in more detail.
You can dial in specific frequencies with the High- and Lowpass filters or use on of the three presets to get started.

Spectogram lets you compare the strength of a signal over time of both your track and your reference next to each other.
Loudness (in beta) gives you some basic loudness metering
and a VU Meter which can be set to 6 different modes:

fast (no ballistics or dB-offset)
VU (attack = 330; release = 330; dB-offset = -20)
DIN 45 406(IEC PPM type IIb) (attack = 10; release = 1500; dB-offset = -14)
BBC (IEC PPM type IIa) (attack = 10; release = 3000; dB-offset = -14)
Nordic (IEC PPM type I) (attack = 5; release = 2000; dB-offset = -14)
EBU Digital (attack = 0; release = 1500; dB-offset = -14)

Waveform visualisation of both Tracks

B Plugin gives you the ability to load a seperate AU/VST Plugin for you reference Track. This will not affect your original Track.

M1 users: Some Plugins have to be manually loaded by selecting them via the LoadPath button and then going to your plugin folder which is usually here /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components

This feature is still experimental

Reference AB lite

This version of the device only features the Playback and B Plugin functions for improved performance.

Ableton Live Suite needed!

If you find any bugs or have feature requests please send me an email reference@johndarque.com

Tested with Ableton Live Suite 10.1.35 and 11.0.12

Changelog:

v2.2

• added Reference AB lite which only features the Playback and B Plugin functions to increase performance.

• added optional floating window

• improved performance slightly for Reference AB

v2.1

• improved gain matching (device now listens for three seconds before making changes)

v2.0

• added ability to load plugin for reference track only

• added waveform visualisation

v1.1

• fixed random bug when starting reference track from within device

v1.0

• initial release